Cubs fans vs. Sox fans: Splitsville, Illinois

Chicago fans are born, not raised; changing sides goes against nature

MICHAEL MURPHY, Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle |
October 27, 2005

It's the North vs. the South, and while it can't really be described as a civil war, it sometimes seems as if the passions are just as intense. And if the White Sox win the 2005 World Series, things should really heat up in the nation's third-largest city.

The South Side of Chicago is home to the White Sox, the Windy City's neglected stepchildren. While they play in the same city as the National League's Cubs, the teams are worlds apart when it comes to popularity and visibility.

So the thought of the White Sox winning a World Series, their first since 1917, chills every Cubs fan to the bone.

How intense is the rivalry? The distilled essence can be found on bleedcubbieblue.com, a blog for rabid Cubs fans, one which the following parable is featured:

A young girl named Katie, raised to be a Cubs fan on the north side of Chicago, moved to Milwaukee. On the first day of second grade, her teacher, trying to connect with the kids, wears a Brewers hat and asks, "Who here is a fan of the Brewers?"

Everyone but Katie raises a hand.

The teacher asks, "Katie, you don't like the Brewers?"

Katie responds, "No ma'am, I'm a Cubs fan."

The teacher then asks, "Why is that?"

Katie replies, "Because my mommy and daddy are Cubs fans."

The teacher says, "Well, Katie, that's great, but we don't have to do everything like our mommies and daddies. What if your mommy and daddy were criminals?"

Katie thought about it for a minute and answered, "Well, then I guess I would be a White Sox fan."

"Oh, yeah, it's intense," said Astros announcer Milo Hamilton, who has the unusual distinction of having worked for both the Cubs (1956-57 and 1980-84) and the White Sox (1962-65). "You're either (a fan of) one or the other. You're not both."

Switch hitting fans

Actually, now that the White Sox are in the World Series — where they took a commanding 3-0 lead into Wednesday night's Game 4 against the Astros at Minute Maid Park — for the first time since 1959, there are Cubs fans who have crossed over to the dark side, hopping on the bandwagon as it pulls into the station.

And die-hard Cubbies have a name for those turncoats — "trans-Sox-uals."

It's just a slice of life in Chicago, where the Cubs' fans look down their noses at those who root for the White Sox, and White Sox fans dismiss Cubs fans as elitist snobs.

It's a passionate rivalry that dates back to the original founding of the White Sox in 1900, when a minor-league franchise from St. Paul, Minn., moved to Chicago to be a part of the new American League. The new team adopted the name "White Stockings," which, not coincidentally, was the former name used by the Cubs — an intentional effort by the new owners to siphon off National League fans.

"It's always been a natural rivalry," Hamilton said. "Chicago has always been a Cubs town. It has always been the Cubs and the Bears. When the (NHL's) Blackhawks were in their heyday and (Michael) Jordan's Bulls started to make some noise, the fans came out. But the White Sox were always last in the pecking order.

"It's always been that way."

For the love, not the fame

That lack of recognition has created some hard feelings that just won't go away. Talk to White Sox executives and they won't even mention the name of "the other team" that plays "in that other place," which, for the uninitiated, is the ivy-covered — and quite familiar to even casual baseball fans — walls of Wrigley Field.

"I don't think anyone thought that we played inferior baseball," said former White Sox pitching great Billy Pierce of Cubs fans' animosity. "But there certainly was the feeling that we were treated a little inferior, and this (trip to the World Series) will (rectify) that. Now fans here can stick out their chests and say, 'I'm a White Sox fan. I'm from the South Side.' "

Perhaps, but the White Sox players seem to have resigned themselves to their fate. The Cubs could finish dead last and still get all the attention from the fans and local media, while the White Sox go about their business in relative anonymity.

"I always look at that as a positive," said White Sox first baseman Paul Konerko. "We get to play in a big-time sports city, a big market, but there's a lot of stuff those Cubs players have to deal with that we don't.

"They get probably recognized more around the city (while) we kind of fly under the radar. I don't know about now, because of what's gone on. As long as Wrigley is up and running and playing games there, it's going to be a Cub's town. They're going to draw the sell out crowds, whether they're in last place or whatever.